body language
by j. alfred prufrock
Summary: Of course, it helped that Hyde didn’t pull his hand away and sort of let it rest there with hers. Original characters, Hyde/Jackie with mentions of Kelso/Jackie


**A/N:** _A short fic for arti_chan13 for her Sweet Sixteen. Happy birthday, bb! Set during early season five. Un-beta'd._

**Disclaimer:** _Everything belongs to its respectful owner._

*

Christina "Chrissy" Jacobs takes her seat in Mrs. Welch's fourth period Algebra class, already counting how many minutes until class gets out. It's her first day back at Point Place High and she's been sick of it since 8:00, which was about the time school started. She taps on her desk with her perfectly manicured French-tipped nails and sighs.

Sometimes, she thinks, it's really hard being pretty and popular. You have to fake interest in everything.

Tanya Hardee sits down next to her and pops her gum. "Jackie and Michael Kelso broke up," she announces. This is the first worthy bit of gossip Chrissy's heard all day, so her head turns to the side.

Chrissy has always hated Jackie. Jackie was a spoiled, snobby, slutty, back-stabbing bitch. Of course, so was Chrissy, but Jackie also managed to get away with everything and last year, after Chrissy spread a rumor about her being pregnant, Jackie retaliated by telling everyone that at a party in freshman year, Chrissy had gotten drunk and slept with six boys in one night.

It was a lie, of course – it had only been _three_ and, sure, she might have deserved it, but it was still the principle that counted.

"_What_? What is wrong with her? Michael Kelso is the best-looking boy in school!" She honestly can't believe it. "Who broke up with who?"

Tanya lowers her voice down to a whisper. "_Jackie_ did. After he ran off to California, she just broke it off. He wouldn't marry her, so she ended it. It was total social suicide." She gives her friend a conspiratorial glance.

Marie Noble takes Chrissy's other side. "You'd better be quiet, Tanya. Jackie's coming in."

As if on cue, Jackie Burkhart's voice floats into the room. "Honestly, Steven, you don't look _that_ bad. I like your new blazer. I mean, you still need to shave your beard. And you're just angry because you have to take Algebra over again. It's really not my fault that you failed last year."

Jackie enters wearing a purple blouse, matching kitten heels and dark indigo jeans, her black hair perfectly waved and her makeup subtly applied. Right next to her is Steven Hyde (_wait, he still goes here_? Chrissy thinks, totally confused. _I thought he graduated!_), wearing a black Rolling Stones T-shirt, jeans and a new corduroy blazer. He has a beard now, but he's still wearing his aviators and Chrissy can't believe she used to think he was kind of cute.

She can totally tell that someone ironed his shirt, too.

"Steven, stop fidgeting." Jackie's using the same bossy voice that she used on Michael.

"Jackie, stop talking," Hyde snaps, sitting down. Jackie sits next to him.

Before Jackie can respond, Marie purrs, "Hey, Jackie. Heard about Michael. It was tragic."

Jackie smirks. "Thanks, Marie. He ran off to California, and I decided that he wasn't worth my time. I have a new boyfriend now."

Chrissy is one hundred percent sure she's the only person in the room who notices the way Hyde's head jerks over to look at her. She can see the way his mouth curves and she thinks, _what the heck_? "Who?" he asks, and did Chrissy imagine the hint of concern in his voice? Then he reverts to his old… what did he call it? Buddha? Chill? Something Asian.

"None of your business, Steven. Anyway, yeah, he wasn't worth it." Jackie shrugs and smiles, fishing around in her pink backpack for a pencil and notebook.

Mrs. Welch enters when the second bell rings and passes out what she calls "a determinacy quiz." ("Just to make sure you all are in the right class," she wheezes. She's, like, a dinosaur, Chrissy thinks to herself, and totally shouldn't be teaching at this age. She's going to keel over soon and the only person in the room who passed CPR is Richard Newhall and he's _ugly_. She doesn't want to see him mouth-to-mouth Mrs. Welch, even though he'd probably like it, that perv.)

As she tries to figure out the circumference of a circle with a 34-inch radius, she hears Hyde tapping his pencil against his desk. _Tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap-tap. Tap, tap, tap, tap-tap._ Jackie's hand shoots over and covers his for a second. It's brief, but Chrissy notices and her eyes bug out.

She's always been good at reading body language (_hello_, why was she the only one who knew that Mr. Fink the AP Lit teacher and Miss Charleston the secretary were having an affair before he transferred to Madison? The way he leaned against her desk was totally not workplace appropriate) and she _totally_ knew what that was.

Of course, it helped that Hyde didn't pull his hand away and sort of let it rest there with hers.

"Steven, stop tapping your pencil, or I will pinch you."

"Dry up, Jackie," he swears good-naturedly. "I'm thinking."

She pinches him and he swears loudly, causing the entire class to stare. "_Damn_, woman," he whines. Jackie smirks triumphantly and turns back to her quiz.

Thirty minutes later, Jackie stands to take her test up to the front and Chrissy watches the way Hyde stares at her ass. _Oh, yeah. They are totally doing it_, she thinks.

Twenty minutes after that, the bell rings and Hyde and Jackie stand up. As they walk away down the hall together, she can hear him whisper, "so, who's your new boyfriend?"

Jackie just laughs and Chrissy smirks to herself. She's _totally_ going to use this against them some day.

_end_


End file.
